G8 Open Data Charter

Today the G8 has published an open data charter. Nigel Shadbolt writes in the Telegraph about why this is important:

We need strong leadership from the top of the G8, committed officials within government, and a willingness to support those at the coalface: those who collect, generate, manage and oversee this new information revolution.

We need this innovation because we face unprecedented challenges as a society: an increasing population with very different demographics in different regions, environmental security, economic stability, growth and more.

We see open data as a crucial part of rising to these challenges. Quite simply open data is an enabler of freedom. Our freedom to trade, to learn, to be secure, and to our well-being as individuals, organisations, and as countries.

Done well, its impact will be material, measurable, and transparent.

Key points in the charter:

We, the G8 , agree that open data are an untapped resource with huge potential to encourage the building of stronger, more interconnected societies that better meet the needs of our citizens and allow innovation and prosperity to flourish.

We therefore agree to follow a set of principles that will be the foundation for access to, and the release and re use of, data made available by G8 governments. They are:

Open Data by Default

Quality and Quantity

Useable by All

Releasing Data for Improved Governance

Releasing Data for Innovation

While working within our national political and legal frameworks, we will implement these principles in accordance with the technical best practises and timeframes set out in our national action plans. G8 members will, by the end of this year, develop action plans, with a view to implementation of the Charter and technical annex by the end of 2015 at the latest. We will review progress at our next meeting in 2014.

Here’s the document in full (odd for an open data document to be released as a PDF – but..)

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